Come race at the Austin Dragon Boat Festival at Festival Beach on April 25, 2026
06/17/2026
The Austin Coolers Dragon Boat Team are launching their first-ever youth team this summer, with free weekly Saturday morning practices for middle and high schoolers. Parents can paddle alongside their kids, too.
🛶 Kickoff: June 20 at 8:30 AM on Lady Bird Lake
We’d love to see youth teams racing at next year’s Austin Dragon Boat Festival.
Sign up at: https://austincoolers.com/youth-team/
06/01/2026
ADBF 2026 went beyond race day. 🐉
Through the Fold for Good volunteer event, our community handcrafted 600+ zongzi (traditional Chinese rice dumplings) that sold at the festival and raised $889 for the Central Texas Food Bank CTFB is matching that gift into 3,000 meals for children in need. ❤️
We also partnered with CapMetro to make the festival accessible by rail, with 104 digital 1-day passes redeemed by attendees riding public transit to Festival Beach.
And Austin was paying attention. With the help of Juice Consulting, ADBF 2026 earned 32 pieces of media coverage, including KXAN Austin, FOX 7 Austin, CultureMap Austin, Hoodline, Community Impact, Austin Chronicle, Do512, Modern Luxury, Tribeza, MSN, Yahoo News, Patch, Spectrum News, Round the Rock, and more.
This is what community-rooted programming looks like: AANHPI artists paid, neighbors fed, transit supported, and a 26-year-old festival reaching new audiences across the city.
Thank you for showing up. 🌊
Read the full event recap here: https://www.atxdragonboat.com/adbf-2026-recap/
ADBF 2026 by the numbers 📊🐉
The 26th Annual Austin Dragon Boat Festival made history this April, and the receipts are in. Swipe through to see what your community built together.
To every artist, performer, food vendor, paddler, volunteer, and partner who showed up: this is what you helped create. Your work reached more eyes, more screens, and more new audiences than ever before in the festival's 26-year history.
05/29/2026
ADBF 2026 by the numbers 📊🐉
The 26th Annual Austin Dragon Boat Festival made history this April, and the receipts are in. Swipe through to see what your community built together.
🐲~650 athletes across 26 dragon boat teams, the most in ADBF history
🐲3,000 attendees on the ground at Festival Beach
🐲163 AANHPI artists and culinary entrepreneurs featured and paid
🐲62,000+ social media views with zero paid advertising
🐲20,000 Google search impressions
🐲 8+ media placements across Austin's major outlets.
To every artist, performer, food vendor, paddler, volunteer, and partner who showed up: this is what you helped create. Your work reached more eyes, more screens, and more new audiences than ever before in the festival's 26-year history.
Full recap on our website: https://www.atxdragonboat.com/adbf-2026-recap/
As we look back one month post-event, we are still reflecting on the incredible cultural arts that brought the 26th Annual Austin Dragon Boat Festival to life.
Our main stage and outdoor gallery were the true heart of the festival, directly supporting 163 AANHPI artists and culinary entrepreneurs in a single day. This included 145 performers representing 14 different cultural traditions and 12 local visual artists.
We are incredibly proud of the massive exposure these creators received this year. Between an estimated 3,000 in-person attendees, 62,000+ social media views, and coverage across 8 major Austin media outlets, our local AANHPI talent was truly center stage.
Thank you to everyone who showed up to celebrate and support our community's heritage!
Video credit: ZCreative Media
Organized by The Lunar Foundation and the Asian American Cultural Center.
05/15/2026
In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we took our mobile branch to the Austin Dragon Boat Festival at Festival Beach on Lady Bird Lake! 🐉
The festival celebrates the ancient sport of dragon boating while showcasing Austin’s vibrant AAPI community through music, food, and dance.
We’re proud to honor the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, this month and always.
Photo credit: Austin Dragon Boat Festival
05/05/2026
Thank you DUC PINK!! 💗
Did you hear? The Austin Dragon Boat Festival is the FIRST AANHPI cultural festival officially co-sponsored by the City of Austin Government.
This means ADBF now joins a select group of events, including SXSW and the Texas Book Festival, that the city permanently recognizes and supports year after year. Unlike a one-time grant, which requires reapplying for funding each cycle, a city co-sponsorship means ADBF receives annual fee waivers as a matter of city policy. That is a level of recognition our community's cultural events have never received before.
This designation is 26 years in the making, and it would not have happened without the legacy Amy Wong Mok of the Asian American Cultural Center built.
A big thank you to the Mayor & City Council members: Kirk Watson Councilwoman Vanessa Fuentes Council Member José Velásquez Mayor Pro Tem José "Chito" Vela Council Member Ryan Alter CM Krista Laine Mike Siegel Paige Ellis Council Member Zohaib "Zo" Qadri, District 9 Council Member Marc Duchen
04/30/2026
Thank you for joining us, CM Krista Laine!